A Footnote

Hendrick Hertzberg has an interesting footnote to the welcome demise of the effort to get California to split its electoral votes. This went down in part because of Arnold Schwarzennegger’s decision to oppose it. And what may have motivated him?

Anybody remember the first Republican debate, on MSNBC back in May? I’ll bet Arnold does. He was in the front row at the Reagan Library when Chris Matthews asked the ten candidates if they would support changing the Constitution ever so slightly to make naturalized citizens eligible for the presidency. The vote onstage was eight to one against. (The one was Giuliani; McCain said he’d “seriously consider it,” which I count as an abstention.) Eight to one, in other words, in favor of crushing the ultimate and perfectly legitimate dream of the distinguished Governor of California.

If I were Schwarzenegger, I wouldn’t lift a finger to help these bozos.

It’s good to see what’s probably our dumbest constitutional provision finding a way to do some good for the world.